Abstract:

Witchcraft in Europa between 1450-1750 The subject of this research is “the witch hunts” which lasted three centuries and caused the demise of a lot of people most of whom were women. The first accusations of witchery were made against women in the medieval period and this led to the witch hunts which were fuelled by the superstitious beliefs of the Church and turned into a twisted theological idea. The first victims of these hunts were midwives and healer women who knew about herbs. Sometimes men and even children were accused of using witchcraft and these people were arrested after only a single denunciation and were subjected to various tortures. The purpose of this research is to analyse the interrogation and torture processes during imprisonment along with the inhumane witchcraft experiments conducted upon women and to show that the real reason behind women’s becoming witches is torture in the light of sources such as “Males Maleficarum” and “Cautio Criminalis”

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